# Paul Cadmus artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/paul-cadmus/
Profile generated: 2026-08-19T09:50:00.997Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: American
- Movements: Magic realism, American modernism
- Common media: Egg tempera, Drawing, Prints

## Portrait

![Paul Cadmus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Paul_Cadmus_1937_-_Photo_Carl_Van_Vechten.jpg)
User:Jonnmann · Public domain
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_Cadmus_1937_-_Photo_Carl_Van_Vechten.jpg

## About Paul Cadmus

Paul Cadmus (1904–1999) was an American painter and draftsman whose highly finished works often combine social observation with erotic and figurative themes. He is widely associated with egg-tempera painting, detailed drawing, and a form of magic realism characterized by sharply observed people and environments. Urban social interactions, male nude figures, and visual satire are recurring contexts in descriptions of his work. Collectors may encounter Cadmus through paintings, drawings, prints, and works on paper represented in museum, library, and auction records. His institutional profile is supported by resources from the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, Getty Research, and international library authorities. For appraisal purposes, the specific medium, date, provenance, condition, exhibition history, and attribution of each work remain essential.

## Common works and media

Auction and appraisal records may include Paul Cadmus paintings in egg tempera, highly finished drawings, prints, and other works on paper. Figurative subjects—especially urban social scenes and male nude studies—are important contexts for identifying his work. Records may also classify objects under broad categories such as mixed media, sculpture, decorative art, or editions, so the catalogued medium and object type should be checked against the actual work, dimensions, signature, edition details, and provenance.

## Market and appraisal context

Paul Cadmus works appear across public auction categories including paintings, works on paper, prints, mixed media, and editions. Appraisal should begin with close comparables rather than a single artist-wide figure. Medium, scale, date, career period, subject, condition, restoration, signature, inscriptions, edition information, provenance, exhibition history, and catalogue references can all affect interpretation. Recent public auction results may provide useful benchmarks when the comparable work is genuinely similar, but they do not establish a guaranteed value. Appraisily's public artist record includes matched auction data, while private transactions, incomplete feeds, changing attributions, and authentication issues may not be fully represented.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q519534
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/909
- National Gallery of Art: https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.3656.html
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500009073
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/32801272/
- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/087103176
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cadmus
- Wikipedia: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cadmus
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/paul-cadmus/